Mobile Homestead (2011)

Overview

Mobile Homestead is a public artwork by Mike Kelley consisting of a full-scale replica of his childhood home in the Detroit suburb of Westland, built upon a complex of secret subterranean tunnels and rooms. Located on the grounds of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) in Downtown Detroit, the sculpture functions as a community gallery with a removable, street legal façade that is mobilized periodically to provide various public services in and around the city. Three Mobile Homestead videos document the maiden voyage of the mobile façade’s journey from MOCAD to Kelley’s childhood neighborhood and back again in 2010. What emerges is a poignant portrait of the post-recession Motor City, speaking to the city’s cultural diversity, history, and socioeconomic stratification, and detailing local establishments that run the gamut from a motor-themed strip club to the Henry Ford Museum.